Dev Patel Will Slum it Again, This Time in Neill Blomkamp’s Chappie

Former “Slumdog Millionaire’s” Dev Patel is returning to the slums, though this time he’ll be swapping India for South Africa. The actor is currently “in talks” to star in “District 9″ and “Elysium” director Neill Blomkamp’s “Chappie”.

The film will be a feature film adaptation of Blomkamp’s short film “Tetra Vaal”, with Patel playing a young man living in an impoverished South African town in the near future, where a robotic police force keeps the peace. Blomkamp’s BFF and “District 9″ and “Elysium” star Sharlto Copley was first cast as one of the robot coppers. Or the voice of one, I guess would be more appropriate, given that the robots of the short film won’t exactly, uh, fit him.

“Chappie” is expected to be Blomkamp’s next film after “Elysium” opens later this year. Like “Elysium” and “District 9″ before it, I suspect “Chappie” will make some social commentary about the state of class and poverty in the world. That, mixed in with crazy good action, of course.

Patel’s breakthrough role was Danny Boyle’s 2008’s “Slumdog Millionaire”. He followed that up with M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender”, but is currently trying to regain back some respectability on HBO’s “The Newsroom”.